Count Dooku and Grand Admiral Thrawn have nothing really in common beyond serving as the antagonists towards the heroes of the Star Wars universe. One was in the prequel trilogy, and the other as part of either the Expanded Universe or the Disney "canon" that is used today. Count Dooku may be a Sith Lord with Force Lightning at his disposal, and Thrawn may be a strategist, but both present themselves as forces to be reckoned with in past lore. Let's give them both a review, shall we?
Let's take a look at Count Dooku. His Sith robes are a very dark brown with a slightly lighter shade for the belt, but the cape he comes with further pushes himself from the Jedi title he once had. Dooku's appearance is rather elegant and fits his look of superiority. His character design also contrasts the more demon martial arts-based Darth Maul, the armored cyborg Anakin Skywalker becomes as Darth Vader, and the old, cloaked figure of Darth Sidious. And given that Sir Christopher Lee once played Dracula, it makes sense there is a bit of a vampire influence in his appearance, hence the name Count Dooku. Also is it me, or do people prefer to call him by that name than Darth Tyranus in-universe?
His head sculpt is very close to the actor who played him, Sir Christopher Lee, though I have to apologize for the messy details on the LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK!! LEFT CHEEK!!! Considering how this figure was released long after Chris's death, Hasbro did a great job with the likeness as they paid tribute to arguably one of the greatest actors of all time. His articulation has two points at the neck, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, swivels at the elbow as well as a past 90 degree bend at the elbows, wrist swivels as well as hinges, a diaphragm joint, hips that move front and back, in and out, swivels at both the thighs and above the thighs, knee bends and ankle hinges as well as pivots. His lightsaber can be held in his hand as always and use the traditional blade...
...or be depicted with a motion blade, which is something we rarely see but I would value it more had it not been for the pegs being fragile as hell if you bend the lightsabers funny. But Dooku does look great posing with other characters he fights against, such as Yoda in spite of the midget being a bit bigger than normal, but don't judge him by his size.
I do wish that his hands and head can come off so you can better sell the display options where he is defeated by Anakin Skywalker during the Duel on the Invisible Hand. Especially since it was one of the pivotal scenes towards the Jedi's turn to the Dark Side throughout the film. But at the very least, all we really need to complete the scene is Palpatine telling Anakin to kill him. Do it! Overall, Count Dooku is a very quality release for a Black Series figure, especially when he captures the essence of the character and also has a good cloth cape compared to the cloth goods of other Black Series figures. Still needs Force Lightning hands, though.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And here we have Grand Admiral Thrawn, who contrasts the darker robes of the Sith Lord we just looked at thanks to this villain's stark-white uniform, complete with a belt, holster, military rankings on his left pectoral side, and black, knee-high boots. Thrawn's white uniform looks generally crisp, though I do feel his torso is a little cheaper than I'm used to with Black Series figures. Maybe it's just me being used to there being something behind the backs of other figures, such as a cape, or when a figure is more layered than he is. Whatever the case, Thrawn is about the same quality as the other figures we got in 2017 for both SDCC and one of the Last Jedi-themed waves. Yes, being an Archive variant, this figure is only altered from those releases in one specific way:
The head sculpt is refined somewhat to make him much more realistic than previous versions, a trend that makes Hasbro figures stand out with their face-printing technology that began in 2018. If this figure was released that year rather than in 2017, he would have come with the improved face detailing. His blood-red eyes also look organic rather than basic. His articulation is about the same as Dooku though the knees are double-jointed, an old trend from the Black Series figures of the past. He comes with a single pistol, known as the RK-3 Blaster. A decently painted weapon that is small and not really helpful in making most of the Black Series line's releases not worth the $20+ price tag. I got this guy for $10 instead, and it seems further justified as he lacks the accessories that the SDCC version had. At least he seems to be an original sculpt.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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